This is a great, sensible post. Right radio for the job. Here in the uk, I have a customer who wants to buy a marine radio for occasional things he does at sea. He’s a casual kayaker. No requirement to have a radio, so the idea is you charge the batteries, tuck it into the wetsuit and if you don’t have an accident, don’t touch it. He’s booked on the vhf marine course. He also is a non-active ham, with the test, the licence but no radio equipment. The whim passed. He also had a small local business and talks from the office to his drivers in the local area on a £75 for 5 years licence. I suggested maybe he should buy an IP67 dual bander, because our requirements here for type approval revolve around equipment that meet the spec rather than actually gets tested and labelled. He can buy one product, use it on marine, ham and business bands. As he’s a ham, he can cope with frequency display for marine, and while it’s not a marine radio, it can do the job. I suppose that he really should have three radios, but one nice one will do the job, and wont worry the authorities.
Disasters DO NOT in any way remove the requirement of a license!
Indeed not - but avoiding a disaster has, as far as I am aware, never resulted in a prosecution. Genuine risk to life is internationally protected.
In the UK, OFCOM, our version of your FCC rarely prosecute. They currently issue marine licences for free - the only cost is the one day VHF course run by boating centres around the country. It’s about £70-100 for the day with the examiner visiting in the afternoon. No figures are available for how many people have the licence and how many people have ever taken a test.
These casual boaters do not use their radios for the usual purposes at all - they merely have them for that ‘just in case’ moment. I understand that.
Have both Amateur Radio and GMRS licenses. Living in a wildfire zone started me seeing GMRS as the best way to get the most people communicating the most current conditions. Having our county distribute free weather alert radios made people aware of the need to transmit besides just receiving info during evacuations. Our community is slowly building a growing GMRS repeater network.
Free maritime license in the UK? In the USA no license is needed for a casual boater on Vhf. It comes with the Part 80 radio compliance.
47 Cfr 80.13 (c):
“A ship station is licensed by rule and does not need an individual license issued by the FCC if the ship station is not subject to the radio equipment carriage requirements of any statute, treaty or agreement to which the United States is signatory, the ship station does not travel to foreign ports, and the ship station does not make international communications…”
People using marine VHF ashore are sometimes tracked down and fined if there is no corresponding “vessel” nearby and afloat, or other rules violations, but not if the transmission is exempt as a bona fide emergency.
I have recently obtained my General Ham but my family has no interest in HAM radio. Just got the GMRS license and bought a bunch of radios for Christmas presents. Hopefully they will use them!
Good deal! I have a General for years and no one in my family wanted anything to do with it. After getting my GMRS license I have got my children (grown and married) and wife to use the radios. Two weeks ago my wife’s cell phone died. I actually got her to use a handheld while awaiting her new phone to arrive. I bet you family will be interested.
That is encouraging!
I have my FCC license, WRQO912. it is no big deal. Basic rules are not that restrictive. No rules, no licenses, and GMRS will quickly be as useless as CB. I don’t see the need for strict monitoring of GMRS and if you try to follow the rules and try to get alone, GMRS communication can and will become more popular.
I have both my GMRS and my Ham license, cause, why not. Play nice.
Worked for me. Their eyes glazed over when discussing ham radio but, when I gave 'em their own GMRS radios, they showed new interest. Wife will actually hit me up on her mobile rig while I’m working from home now. Says “it’s faster and easier than calling”. GMRS was the only way I could get 'em to do anything with backup coms.